The World Eaters come to pre-orders this weekend, and they’ve got several exciting new ways to play (which still involve chain weapons to the face). Tournament pro Richard Siegler is here to extol the virtues of Berzerkers and Daemons.
Richard: It's time for Khorne's chosen Legion to have their time in the limelight. With the new Codex: World Eaters, there are many exciting new rules, playstyles, and tricks to master. This article is going to focus on some of the important changes and analyse two brand new playstyles that have emerged.
Berzerkers are back!
The first new playstyle centers around the iconic Khorne Berzerker. In the Index, Khorne Berzerkers were often seen as support pieces for a Master of Executions, and used on easy-to-kill enemy units too feeble to be worthy of being maimed by your Exalted Eightbound.
In the new Codex, Khorne Berzerkers can become the core of your army, and some of your strongest units when the proper rules are applied. What changed?
First, they gained 2" of additional Movement, up to 8". Their squad size also shifted from 5-10 models to 10-20, making offensive or defensive stratagems much more efficient on larger squads. They did lose a point of melee Strength (which can be regained with the Berzerker Warband detachment), but their Blood Surge move became D6+2”, making it significantly more annoying.
The support pieces also became stronger and more synergistic. For example, when the Lord on Juggernaut leads a Berzerker unit, their move characteristic becomes 10" (and the Lord can now move through terrain!). He also grants his unit the ability to fight enemy models within 3", dramatically increasing the amount of melee in a crowd. Meanwhile the Master of Executions allows his Berzerker unit to reroll Blood Surge moves.
In my opinion, there are two standout Detachments: the Berzerker Warband and Goretrack Onslaught.
Berzerker Warband benefits
The Detachment rule provides +2 Strength and +1 Attacks on the charge! This upgrades your chainblades to 5 Attacks each at Strength 6, with easy access to Sustained 1 or Lethal Hits from Blessings of Khorne.
The Hack and Slash Stratagem grants +1 AP, enhancing the chainblades to AP 2.
The Apoplectic Frenzy Stratagem grants access to the critical mobility buff of Advance and Charge, allowing you to bring your melee prowess deep into enemy lines!
The Frenzied Resilience Stratagem is particularly efficient on a 20-model Berzerker unit, offering -1 to incoming Damage.
The aptly titled Berzerker's Wrath Stratagem allows your Berzerker unit to Blood Surge the maximum 8" instead of rolling to determine the distance, making it significantly harder for the opponent to avoid.
Goretrack Onslaught benefits
The Detachment rule grants +1 to Charge rolls after disembarking from a Transport, adding Lance to make it significantly easier to maim tougher targets.
The Murderous Onslaught Enhancement allows a unit that disembarked from a Transport to ignore Overwatch until the end of the turn, allowing your Berzerker unit to ignore the power of Torrent weapons.
The Aggressive Deployment Enhancement grants the bearer and his unit Scouts 9" from within their Dedicated Transport, allowing you to get to the centre of the board much more effectively and project your combat prowess.
The Infernal Infusion Enhancement grants the Fights First ability once per battle, a game-changing ability when fighting other melee armies!
The Detachment's six Stratagems all interact with transports and vehicles, encouraging you to take multiple Rhinos. The most impactful for your Berzerkers is Full-Throttle Assault, allowing a unit in a Rhino to disembark and charge after that Rhino completes a normal move. When combined with the Smash Through Stratagem to move a vehicle through terrain features, the threat projection of your Berzerkers is worthy of Khorne himself!
The Unrelenting Advance Stratagem allows a World Eaters vehicle that was just shot to make a 6" normal move, keeping it safe from further firepower. Even better is the Fury Unleashed Stratagem: this allows a Rhino that was shot at to disembark its Khorne Berzerkers, who can then make a Blood Surge move, engaging any nearby enemies. This is going to be very tricky for your opponent to play against when properly positioned!
Daemonic destruction
The other major new playstyle for World Eaters involves the Khorne Daemonkin detachment, which allows your World Eaters army to be joined by up to 1,000 points of Blood Legion units in a Strike Force game. It was previously very rare to use Khorne Chaos Daemons allies, but this new detachment has several powerful rules that encourage you to do so, especially when combined with the recently upgraded Khorne datasheets.
Khorne may have punished Skarbrand for his hubris, but with his recent datasheet glow-up, this rogue Bloodthirster is one of the few ways to advance and charge with World Eaters – and one of the hardest-hitting combat units in the entire game.
The Disciple of Khorne Enhancement allows a Lord on Juggernaut to be attached to a Bloodcrushers or Flesh Hounds unit. Importantly, this allows Bloodcrushers to move through terrain features in your Movement or Charge phase, a huge mobility boost. Additionally, the ability to fight enemy units within 3" rather than Engagement Range makes it significantly easier to attack with all of the models in your unit.
The Blade of Endless Bloodshed elevates a Daemon Prince into a combat powerhouse with few equals. With +1 Attacks, +1 Strength and +1 Damage, he has an eyewatering 9 Attacks hitting on 2+ at Strength 9, AP2 and 4 Damage, with Devastating Wounds on the charge!
Typically Khorne is all about bloodlust, but Summoned by Slaughter is an incredibly tricky and powerful Stratagem. When a unit dies on the battlefield, you can place a Bloodletters unit from Reserves onto the battlefield wholly within 9" of the last model to be destroyed from that unit. You can use this Stratagem to summon Bloodletters to make easy charges into places your opponent did not expect, and it can also be used to protect your own objectives.
The Daemonic Fury Stratagem allows a Blood Legion unit to grant a friendly World Eaters unit within 6" Lance. If the Daemonic Rage ability is active for your army, you gain Twin-Linked as well, allowing for devastating amounts of damage against a key enemy unit.
Overall, Codex: World Eaters not only promises several new playstyles for fans of the faction, but also encourages players to take the most iconic World Eaters units. This is an exciting time to be a disciple of Khorne, with a lot of new rules to explore and master!
Thanks to Richard Siegler, a professional Warhammer player and content creator with Art of War 40K! He is best known for winning the ITC twice and helping new players learn the game and become their best on his YouTube channel. Codex: World Eaters will be available to pre-order on Saturday.
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